SWITCHBLADE SCARLETT – White Line Fever (2011)

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Switchblade Scarlett hails from Ohio, where the founding members of the band all met while teaching at the School of Rock in Cleveland.
Their just released debut “White. Line. Fever.”, a blend of ’80s arena Hard Rock without the ‘hair style’ with some seventies Glam, in the vein of New York Dolls and alikes. The band defines their music as ‘Party Rock’ with big guitars and anthemic choruses.

The ‘party’ is there, and some tracks are really catchy and direct, however some songs are in the middle of nowhere.
I don’t think that “Big Apple Baby” was the best choice for an opener. It’s a furious track with a hard attack driven by razor guitars and angry vocals, but lacks consistence in my opinion.
Things get better on the glammy (not sleazy) title track “White. Line. Fever.”, with an anthemic pretensions and a good rhythm, sadly the forced vocals and an out of place synth arrangement deviates the attention.
For “Say Anything” Switchblade Scarlett really ‘switch’ the style and the sonic approach for a more ’80s commercial and poppy rocker, almost AORish during the chorus. Good one.
Follower is really good too. Occurs that “Heart Breakers” is a cover of a Pat Benatar tune, slightly harder then the original, well arranged and performed.
Next, “Little Hearts” is nice melodic rocker with an American retro vibe and a cool refrain. The band feels good on this kind of material, so at this point I was wondering the ‘why?’ on the style developed on the first two tracks.

“Party Girls (Can I Be Your Man)” returns to the classic hard rock mold but fortunately with more clean (although raspy) vocals and fine guitar progressions. The constant gang-backing vocals works well.
“Gone” starts as a bar-bluesy rocker but soon is flooded by melodic harmony vocals and some eighties synths. Curious combination for sure and not bad at all.
“Dirty Girl” is a guitar fueled song but melodic, reminding me some Quireboys material, “Lucielle” has a Sunset Blvd scent, and “Saigon Lullaby” turns a bit heavier, in the middle of the road between an anthem and a retro hard rocker.
The disc ends with “…At Least The Rolling Stones Still Make Me Smile” an acoustic track with a bluegrass smell complete with slide guitar and a stripped vibe.

“White. Line. Fever.” is a good album (except the weak and gritty 2 first tracks) with some good compositions and ideas.
Switchblade Scarlett is a new band that needs to improve on many departments, specially the musical direction. A band could be wide stylistically but on their debut needs to be focused.
They sound more comfortable here on the melodic tunes with some hard attack, complemented with nice harmony vocals.
The production is as good as it gets for an indie release, decent for the most part.
If Switchblade Scarlett nail the style that better suit for them, we can expect a promising future for this band.
Interesting.

01 – Big Apple Baby
02 – White. Line. Fever.
03 – Say Anything
04 – Heart Breakers
05 – Little Hearts
06 – Red Clay
07 – Party Girls (Can I Be Your Man)
08 – Gone
09 – Dirty Girl
10 – Lucielle
11 – Saigon Lullaby
12 – …At Least The Rolling Stones Still Make Me Smile

Shawn Perry – Vocas, Guitar
Corey Linden – Guitar, backing vocals
Russ Richards – Keyboards, backing vocals
Spider Lane – Bass, backing vocals
Scott Dall – Drums, backing vocals

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www.nehrecords.com/SHOP/SwitchbladeWhite.htm